Quick Start Guide for IAP-Wiki

The Internet opened up publishing to many people by reducing the cost of publishing; however, only one person or a limited group of individuals could create content for web sites. Wiki software opens the other end of the pipe by allowing anyone to contribute to the creation of a body of knowledge. This site is an effort to collect and organize a body of knowledge related to making pens and writing instruments of all kinds. Subjects may include materials, techniques, tools, and marketing of writing instruments.

The content of IAP-Wiki can be updated by any member of IAP and you are encouraged to add to the body of knowledge. A "Sandbox" page permits you to experiment with WYSIWYG* editing without fear of impacting the content of the IAP-Wiki. You can even create additional pages in the Sandbox, but PLEASE start the Page Title with the word "Sandbox" so the Sandbox pages do not get mixed into the normal Wiki pages.

WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get - An editor that shows you substantially how the
document appears on screen or printed.

Below is the Main Page display.

The Green area near the top has tabs that allow you to manipulate the current page.

The yellow area has information related to your activities in the Wiki.

The blue area items take you to items that help you understand the Wiki and how to Navigate, Edit, and Style pages.

Navigating

Normal browser controls allow you to navigate through the IAP-Wiki. See here for a list of any browser related issues. You can scroll through pages, follow links to other pages and search for content. Links are shown in Blue, Purple or Red. Blue is for Pages you have not visited, Purple is for Pages you have seen, and Red is for a link to a location that doesn't exist. See the Style Guidelines for a discussion of Links.

On the left side of the screen is a Navigation area (Sidebar) containing many commonly used operations. Here you can go directly to a number of pages related to specific topics of interest to Penturners.

Searching

The search box allows you to directly search for page content. The search is NOT case sensitive. ie "Sand", "sand", "and "sanD" are all equivalent.

The "search" box and "Go" button are used to locate "Pages" by name or terms contained in page title OR text.

The "Go" and "Search" are slightly different.

Go If you type the exact Page Title of a page (excepting case), that page will appear on screen. If there is no page with an exact match, search results appear in two sections. "Page title matches" contains a list of pages where the search term appears in the Page Title. "Page text matches" lists pages where the search term appears in the text of the page.

Add an Asterisk (*) to the end of the string to show all variations of the search term

In these Examples do not type the quotes. If you type "Sandbox" a page appears only if the Page Title is exactly "Sandbox" or "SandBox", etc but will NOT show "Sandboxes" or other variations. You get a list of pages where the exact search term appears as a Page Title word, followed by a list of pages where the search term appears in the text of the page. It has to be an exact match excepting case.

If you search for a term with an asterisk like "sand*" (note the asterisk at the end of the term!) you will get the page titles that contain that term with variations like "Sandbox" "Sander", "Sanding", etc, AND a list of pages where the term and variations appear in the text of the page.

Multiple References

Pages can be "Redirected". For example "IAP", "Penturners.org", and "International Association of Penturners" might all link to the same page. Select the page title you want and then click on the "Go" button. If the Page Title you clicked on does not exist, you can create the page by clicking on the redlink "Create this page". Immediately below is a paragraph about "redlinks"

Redlinks

The term redlink (red-link) is Wiki-speak for a link or page that does not exist. It is usually shown in RED, hence the term redlink. In a normal web site you would get a "Page not found" error, but in a Wiki, the Wiki will allow you to create the missing page and you are encouraged to do so.

Penmaking

The penmaking box has entry points on how to perform common pen-making tasks and techniques.

Toolbox

The "toolbox" contains Links related to Wiki Operation. It contains the "Upload File" Page where you can upload files to IAP-Wiki for use in content you are creating. It is used mostly for image files.

Article Pages

A Wiki is a collection of "Pages". Each page has a "Title" and contains text, images, lists, tables, charts, and links to other Wiki pages or other web site pages. Pages can be assigned to a "Category" and categories can be created, renamed and removed. See the Style Guidelines for more information on how pages should be formatted. Did you notice the colored Link in the previous sentence? Click on the link to go to that page, then use the "Back button" on your browser to return here. Don't worry, I'll wait.....

Content

Content in the Wiki should be in an "encyclopedia" format rather than in a forum style. Questions, suggestions, and assistance about the Wiki should be posted in the IAP Wiki Forum.

Questions about pen-turning or anything related should be posted in the appropriate IAP forum.

Adding Content to IAP-Wiki

The creation of a Wiki is an extreme form of collaboration. Many people will add to the content of the Wiki and the WYSIWYG editor makes this easy to do. If you want to contribute to the IAP-Wiki, please visit the Editing Help and Style Guidelines pages for details.

If you intend to contribute to IAP-Wiki, please click on "my preferences" at the top of the page and enter your "real name", "signature", and "email address" on that page if it is not already filled in. This will enable notifications of page changes and Signature stamping,

All the content of the Wiki has a complete HISTORY of it's contents, so any changes can be reviewed, reversed or combined easily. If you make a mistake, it is easily corrected!

Content History

Every Page has a History. You can see all the changes and who made them here. If you have made a mistake in adding or updating content, the changes can be examined, undone, combined, or merged here.

Discussion Pages

Each Article Page has a matching Discussion Page. Do not post questions in the Wiki. Questions should be asked and answered in the appropriate IAP Forum. The IAP Wiki Forum can be used to discuss page contents or the direction the Wiki should take.

The Discussion page should only be used when a small group are collaborating on creating page content.